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Using GUI color settings in a terminal
Getting consistent colors in different terminals is challenging because different terminals support different numbers of colors. Also, terminals can be set up with different color palettes, so the same color scheme may look very different on different machines or different terminals. Vim's GUI does not have this problem since colors for the GUI are defined by their true color (their red, green and blue components). However, some people prefer to use Vim in a terminal rather than gvim. Many terminals support 256 or 88 colors. Gnome-terminal or Xterm for example support 256 colors on recent distributions of Linux or on Cygwin. Even if the terminal supports 256 colors, it may not use the 256 colors by default. But setting 't_Co' to 256 in vimrc is enough to make Vim use 256 colors. However, setting up a color scheme to look identical in different terminals and in the GUI is difficult since colors for the GUI are defined by RGB, and colors in a terminal are defined by color indices. Furthermore, the indices for ctermfg and ctermbg depend on the number of colors that the terminal supports. Solution 1: the guicolorscheme plugin The plugin can be used to conveniently load a color scheme designed for the GUI into a 256-color terminal (or an 88-color terminal) using the color settings of the GUI. To use it, download and install the guicolorscheme plugin. Then add the following lines to your vimrc. You may have to uncomment the line set t_Co=256 or set t_Co=88 if your terminal does not use 256 colors by default. You can of course replace the color scheme in the example below with your favorite. This color scheme is used as an example because it defines colors for the GUI: " IMPORTANT: Uncomment one of the following lines to force " using 256 colors (or 88 colors) if your terminal supports it, " but does not automatically use 256 colors by default. "set t_Co=256 "set t_Co=88 if (&t_Co 256 || &t_Co 88) && !has('gui_running') && \ filereadable(expand("$HOME/.vim/plugin/guicolorscheme.vim")) " Use the guicolorscheme plugin to makes 256-color or 88-color " terminal use GUI colors rather than cterm colors. runtime! plugin/guicolorscheme.vim GuiColorScheme rastafari else " For 8-color 16-color terminals or for gvim, just use the " regular :colorscheme command. colorscheme rastafari endif Solution 2: the CSApprox plugin The plugin also allows loading colors from the GUI into a color terminal. Internally, it works very differently than the guicolorscheme plugin. Using the CSApprox plugin is easier: installing the plugin may just be enough. But you may need to add the following lines in your vimrc in order to be able to use 256 colors and to configure the CSApprox plugin: " IMPORTANT: Uncomment one of the following lines to force " using 256 colors (or 88 colors) if your terminal supports it, " but does not automatically use 256 colors by default. "set t_Co=256 "set t_Co=88 let g:CSApprox_attr_map = { 'bold' : 'bold', 'italic' : '', 'sp' : '' } colorscheme rastafari Putting it all together Both plugins guicolorscheme and CSApprox aim to achieve the same goal but they do it in very different ways which have their pros and cons: *CSApprox is more robust since it does not rely on parsing the colorscheme script. *CSApprox takes into account the different color cubes for different terminals. *CSApprox is more configurable. *CSApprox is better documented (:help csapprox). *CSApprox is easier to set up, it does not rely on the hack using the runtime! command to load the plugin before loading the color scheme. On the other hand: *guicolorscheme does not require the +gui feature unlike CSApprox. *guicolorscheme is faster. The most portable way to get consistent colors in the terminal is to try either one of the plugins. The old Cygwin terminal did not support 256 colors but Cygwin also ships with Mintty which does support 256 colors - set the "Type" to "xterm-256color" in its setup options. Of course, Cygwin/X also ships with Xterm which supports 256 colors. The following script, to be added in vimrc, tries to use CSApprox if all conditions are satisfied, or else tries to use guicolorscheme: if version >= 700 && &term != 'cygwin' && !has('gui_running') " In the color terminal, try to use CSApprox.vim plugin or " guicolorscheme.vim plugin if possible in order to have consistent " colors on different terminals. " " Uncomment one of the following lines to force 256 or 88 colors if " your terminal supports it. Or comment both of them if your terminal " supports neither 256 nor 88 colors. Unfortunately, querying the " number of supported colors does not work on all terminals. set t_Co=256 "set t_Co=88 if &t_Co 256 || &t_Co 88 " Check whether to use CSApprox.vim plugin or guicolorscheme.vim plugin. if has('gui') && \ (filereadable(expand("$HOME/.vim/plugin/CSApprox.vim")) || \ filereadable(expand("$HOME/vimfiles/plugin/CSApprox.vim"))) let s:use_CSApprox = 1 elseif filereadable(expand("$HOME/.vim/plugin/guicolorscheme.vim")) || \ filereadable(expand("$HOME/vimfiles/plugin/guicolorscheme.vim")) let s:use_guicolorscheme = 1 endif endif endif if exists('s:use_CSApprox') " Can use the CSApprox.vim plugin. let g:CSApprox_attr_map = { 'bold' : 'bold', 'italic' : '', 'sp' : '' } colorscheme rastafari elseif exists('s:use_guicolorscheme') " Can use the guicolorscheme plugin. It needs to be loaded before " running GuiColorScheme (hence the :runtime! command). runtime! plugin/guicolorscheme.vim GuiColorScheme rastafari else colorscheme rastafari endif Other plugins * Comments Global plugins are loaded by Vim without user intervention, and they can reside in $VIM/vimfiles/plugin/ just as well as in ~/.vim/plugin/. To load the colorscheme after the guicolorscheme plugin, there are two solutions which are equivalent, and more robust than testing for filereadable() (use only one of them): * Put the if / then / else block with :colorscheme and :GuiColorScheme commands in an after-plugin (maybe ~/.vim/after/plugin/guicolorscheme.vim ) * Load it from an autocommand for the VimEnter event, which is triggered at the very end of startup, after all global plugins have been run. * In both cases, since now we know that the plugin has already been run if only it is installed, if exists(':GuiColorScheme') 2 is a good enough test of its presence. So here is a modified snippet for either a function called at the VimEnter event, or a user-after-plugin: if !exists('my_colors_name') let my_colors_name = "rastafari" " change this variable (here or in the vimrc) " if you want to try a different colorscheme endif if has('gui_running') || &t_Co < 88 " only load 'special' terminal colors if the terminal " supports them AND we aren't starting the GUI exe 'colorscheme' my_colors_name elseif exists(':CSApproxSnapshot') 2 " CSApprox installed and working " Note: this implicitly tests has('gui') let g:CSApprox_attr_map = { 'bold' : 'bold', 'italic' : '', 'sp' : '' } exe 'colorscheme' my_colors_name elseif exists(':GuiColorScheme') 2 " no CSApprox, but we have guicolorscheme installed exe 'GuiColorScheme' my_colors_name else " software support is lacking exe 'colorscheme' my_colors_name endif See: : : : Tonymec 16:38, 12 July 2009 (UTC) ---- See also in my almost-default colorscheme an example of an autocommand which changes colors "on the fly" and works with CSApprox (if installed) on 88/256-color cterms — Tonymec 01:54, 5 August 2009 (UTC) ---- Another way to set t_Co : the 'term' option The above vimtip relies on commenting or uncommenting lines of Vim code depending on how many colours your terminal can display. But what if you may use different terminals on the same machine, some of them 88/256-color-capable and some not, and none of them setting t_Co in their termcaps? My idea is to check the terminal name: for instance, on my system, * the Linux console has only 8 background + 16 foreground colours * the konsole terminal tries to pass itself off as "xterm"; it is 256-colour-capable but doesn't advertise it * the mlterm terminal is also 256-colour-capable and doesn't advertise it either * I haven't tested other terminals such as gnome-terminal or rxvt So I have the following in my vimrc, before CSApprox (which is what I use) has run: " use 256 colors in Console mode if we think the terminal supports it if &term =~? 'mlterm\|xterm' set t_Co=256 endif --Tonymec (talk) 19:13, February 12, 2013 (UTC)